Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-11-05
A SOCIAL REFORM.

| Considering the vast experience OF
many philanthropic people who have
honestly and conscicntiously devoted
much of their time and efforts to
countcract the evils Of society, it
is rather strange that they should
still continc their labors to the super
fetal, and in an economic sense, un-
availing, work of dealing with effects
instead of, in addition to their self
imposed and conscientious labor,
seeking out the causes of these evils
and directing their strongest efforts
against them. That our friends are
fully aware of the deplorable effects
of our loissez faire system of society
is quite evident, as the following
from the New York PhHanthr0piM
will show;
| "Many facts, some of them appalling
are continually brought to the notice of
the editors of The HH,0thropjst, illus
trating the urgent need of White Cross
and Social Purity work. We have be
fore us recent letter of prominent
official of Woman's Temporary Home
in Boston, who has had large expert
ence in befriending erring girls, who
says: 'We have had four since Thanks
giving under fourteen years of age one,
fourteen; two, thirteen, and one sweet
little girl of only twelve years, an orphan,
all becoming mothers She adds: The
fathers of the babies were school boys,
one only fourteen years old The writer
also declares that so many dreadful facts
have of late come to her concerning inn
morality in connection with the schools
that her heart grows sick and faint. She
thinks mothers more at fault than the
children in not giving them proper warn
ing and instruction. Wesecond heartily
, her appeal to the mothers, and add our
own earnestly to the fathers as well, to
give to the boys and the girls, for whose
existence they as parents are responsible,
the teaching and counsel which is their
due concerning the obligations of chastl-
: " and the peris and SutIerings which
are inseparable from sexual immortality
r Now, the report does not say what
r the conditions of the parents of these
crring children were in life; whether
, they had the advantages of well-rcg-
ulatcd homes, or whether they lived
, rs 50 many struggling wage-slavos
must, under the disadvantages OF
abject poverty. The chances for
rearing children property are decid-
edly against the poor parents who
must both turn their time over to
t some employer in order to gain a
mere subsistence.
We have too much respect for our
philanthroplc friends to expect them
to answer with the Ma,thusian doe
trinc. Still, they do not seem to be
fully alive to the relations of social
economy with social purity. The
competitive struggle for existence is
net between the weak and the strong
mentally and physically, but our
, "civilization" has reached point
where the possession of wealth turns
the scales against worth and physi-
cal health, threatening to rob the
masses of both. With these condi-
tons undisturbed we can conceive of
no remedy for the evils so much de-
, plorcd.
The Fhilanthropia does we'll to
turn its attention to the young, and
D it is for the proper bringing up OF
t the growing generation that radlca
j. measures must be taken; nor must
: it be forgotten that the children OF
& neglected and degraded parents ar,
3 especially prone to fall into the er
rors particularly to be guarded
e against. Does not the PhHaHthro
II phist agree with us that such children
;, should have the benefit of continual
: wisely ordered and yet unobtrusiv'
n supervision? And what family tina